Canada Rocket Company (CRC) is building what it claims will be Canada’s first large-scale, static rocket engine test facility on the outskirts of London, Ontario.
The new site will be located on 50 acres of land leased from the Greater London International Airport Authority. The facility will feature a 12,000-square-foot office and shop building for engineering, assembly, and testing, and a dedicated area with up to three vertical and horizontal test stands capable of putting rocket engines with more than one meganewton worth of thrust to the test.
Hugh Kolias,
“Until now, a Canadian company working at this scale would have had to go abroad to countries with more established space programs.”
Canada Rocket Company
“Until now, a Canadian company working at this scale would have had to go abroad to countries with more established space programs,” CRC co-founder and CEO Hugh Kolias told BetaKit over email, citing the United States, France, Germany, and Japan as potential alternatives. “Building it here means that capability stays in the country, and it’s available to others in the ecosystem too.”
CRC says the facility will help anchor its medium-lift orbital launch vision, which entails building a sovereign alternative to SpaceX’s Falcon 9 capable of carrying 12,000-kilogram payloads to space as the US aerospace giant focuses more on its own cargo.
“You cannot develop a rocket engine without somewhere to fire it at full power,” Kolias said. “Every milestone on our roadmap … depends on this site.”
The newest entrant in Canada’s space race plans to invest $30 million CAD in the hub, which it has named after astronaut Jeremy Hansen, the first Canadian to travel to the moon. It expects the facility to be fully operational by 2028.
“The reason a Canadian flew around the moon on Artemis II is because we, as a country, have worked for decades to innovate with the goal of progress and a better future,” Hansen said in a statement. “Missions like Artemis II depend on a strong national space sector, and sovereign launch is an important part of Canada’s future. Canada Rocket Company is helping build that capability here at home.”
CRC expects the expansion to create 40 skilled jobs in the next 18 months, and plans to partner with Western University and Fanshawe College to develop the region’s workforce.
With this move, CRC joins the more than 40 defence and aerospace companies already operating in London. In a statement, London Economic Development Corporation president and CEO Kapil Lakhotia argued that the Southwestern Ontario city possesses “the expertise, talent, and ecosystem to support this kind of innovation.”
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CRC envisions a future in which Canada no longer needs to hitch rides with foreign providers to launch its own satellites. In a recent interview with BetaKit, Kolias said he thinks that CRC can get to space with a larger, medium-lift orbital launch vehicle faster than its peers on the strength of its team, pace, approach, and fundraising prowess.
After decades of relying on the US for protection, the trade war spurred Canada’s federal government to begin shoring up its own defence capabilities last year, including in space, which has become an increasingly important domain given that satellites play a key role in everything from Earth-based communication and navigation to observation.
Since launching last November on the back of that interest, CRC has secured approximately $22.5 million CAD, grown to 34 employees, and opened a 7,400-square-foot Toronto facility where it has begun developing the components it needs to make reusable, methalox-powered rockets capable of carrying 12,000 kilograms to low-Earth orbit, where most satellites reside.
CRC, which is already planning a 500,000-square-foot manufacturing facility, also hopes to close a larger round and begin testing some of its engine components by the end of 2026.
While it is still far from launching a rocket, CRC hopes to create 1,000 jobs and generate over $1 billion in economic investment through its overall launch program if its plans are successful.
Feature image courtesy Canada Rocket Company.